Kia ora koutou! I had a brain wave at 3am the other morning and tested it out with two of my junior classes this week.
Do any of your students struggle to use their imaginations and come up with original new ideas for their writing pieces?
Try this!
A two page spread in their books (defs could be done digitally too!).
Title: The BIGGEST Brainstorm You'll Ever Need, Ever!
They fold their pages in half lengthwise and then half again - creating four columns on each side of the spread. Eight columns in total.
Column titles: Character Names, Personality Traits, Settings/Places, Environments, Events, Problems/Resolutions, Objects, Themes/Issues.
I gave the kids 5 mins for each section to populate their lists as much as they could.
It became very competitive and of course, very collaborative too. And I may have cheated a few times by looking at movie posters in class for ideas and names 😂 and listening to the kid's ideas in their groups.
Arohamai for my messy writing 😁
It looked different on the board (because some kids organised it like that rather than my actual instructions 😂🤦♀️). But essentially it's eight columns with heaps of pre-planned ideas for creative writing.
The kids will choose a few ideas from each column before starting to flesh out those ideas further prior to writing.
Let me know if you try it!
